Arm in arm, Scorsese and Blanchett open 71st Cannes

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A Cannes Film Festival grappling with issues of gender equality and other winds of change was declared open Tuesday by Martin Scorsese and Cate Blanchett, arm in arm, before the premiere of Asghar Farhadi’s “Everybody Knows.”

The 71st edition of the glamorous French Riviera extravaganza of cinema and celebrity – and the first of the post-Harvey Weinstein #MeToo era – kicked off with the Spanish-language debut of Farhadi, the Iranian filmmaker, starring Penelope Cruz and Javier Bardem.

From Left: Argentinian actor Ricardo Darin, Spanish actress Penelope Cruz, Iranian director Asghar Farhadiand Spanish actor Javier Bardem. /AFP Photo

On the opening ceremony’s carefully choreographed red carpet, one of the festival’s numerous modifications this year – a ban on selfies – was broken by some attendees who attempted to take photographs with their phones.

Scorsese, who won the festival’s top prize, the Palme d’Or, for “Taxi Driver,” was in Cannes for an anniversary screening of his 1973 breakthrough “Mean Streets.” Brought out to officially open the festival, he gestured for Blanchett to join him in the middle of the Palais des Festivals’ stage. And much of the spotlight on opening day belonged to Blanchett.

Jury members Khadja Nin, from left, Lea Seydoux, Cate Blanchett, Ava Duvernay and Kristen Stewart pose for photographers during a photo call for the jury at the 71st international film festival, Cannes, May 8, 2018. /Photo by Vianney Le Caer/Invision/AP

Blanchett, along with other jury members Ava DuVernay and Kristen Stewart, said they would join other actresses and female filmmakers on Saturday in a protest in support of the #MeToo and Time's Up movements.

Blanchett, who heads the jury, did not hide her unhappiness that only three of the 21 directors in the running for the top Palme d'Or prize are women.

"There are many women on the jury but I wish there were more in competition," she told French radio Tuesday.

The star hammered the message home with her wardrobe, wearing a suit earlier in the day – like four of the five female jury members – before donning a long black Giorgio Armani Prive gown for the opening ceremony, which she had already worn to the Golden Globes in 2014 to strike a blow against throwaway consumerism.

Problem with women

Cannes' patchy record on female directors, and Saturday's red carpet protest, may generate the most heat in a festival packed with political hot potatoes – even if the launch of the new "Star Wars" spin-off, "Solo", should lighten the mix.

Long before Weinstein was accused of attacking four women at the festival, Cannes had been under fire for its "problem with women".

Women have been stopped on the red carpet in previous years for not wearing high heels, and its dress code has been condemned as sexist.

But the Weinstein scandal has given its critics further ammunition, with screenwriter Kate Muir of Women and Hollywood lacerating the festival as "a two-week celebration of male brains and female beauty."

Jury president Cate Blanchett /Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP

Blanchett noted the industry's frequent reduction of women to ornaments and sidekicks was only slowly changing.

"Being attractive doesn't preclude being intelligent. This is, by its very nature, a glamorous, fantastic, spectacular festival," she said.

Yet with no fewer than a dozen films with LGBT themes, and others tackling child abuse, male prostitution and an eye-watering DIY sex change, it has all the makings of a vintage year for scandal and controversy in Cannes.

A new documentary about the singer Whitney Houston by Oscar-winner Kevin Macdonald reportedly includes a devastating revelation about the demons that dogged her short tragic life.

Jury members Chang Chen, from left, Kristen Stewart, Ava DuVernay, Denis Villeneuve, Cate Blanchett, Robert Guediguian, Khadja Nin, Andrey Zvyagintsev and Lea Seydoux pose for photographers upon arrival at the opening ceremony of the 71st international film festival, Cannes, May 8, 2018. /Photo by Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP

Also on the jury that will decide this year’s Palme d’Or are Russian filmmaker Andrey Zvyagintsev, Canadian director Denis Villeneuve, French director Robert Guediguian and Chinese actor Chang Chen.

DuVernay, the filmmaker of “Selma” and the Netflix documentary “13th,” said that the power of movies is the ability to “speak to each other through cinema.”

“Cinema is voice,” DuVernay said. “It’s the way that I, from where I’m from – Compton, California – was able to understand the humanity of a family in Iran or in Shanghai. There was something outside of my purview to orient me to my place in the world. It was film that did that. It was film that allows me to assert my voice in the world.”

Source(s): AP ,AFP